2011 Season Preview

DANCE

Dancing Diamonds

The legendary Suzanne Farrell on the piece that’s at the heart of her collaboration with the Sarasota Ballet.

BACK-STAGE STORY

Every time I stage one of Balanchine’s ballets, I see something different. I’m constantly discovering another facet of his genius. I call Mr. B’s ballets “worlds” because each one is so different. Each piece creates an entirely different atmosphere, with the costumes, music and choreography. Each step is unique to that world. Whenever people ask what my favorite ballet is, I say, “the one I am currently working on.” I live in the moment, and I am thrilled to revisit the world
of Diamonds.

The Diamonds pas de deux is one of the most beautiful Balanchine ever made, classical in style, epic in scope, and yet in the midst of the grandeur is immense sweetness and vulnerability. The entire dance could be viewed as the buildup to one of the simplest and most breathtaking moments in a ballet. The combination of Balanchine’s choreography and Tchaikovsky’s music [his Symphony
No. 3] is exciting and glamorous.

Dancers are not machines, where the volume can be turned up or amplified. We have to do it all visually and energetically. I say to the dancers, “Ladies and gentlemen, please turn up the volume in your movement; you have to turn up the volume, the Technicolor in your eyes.” We are our own technology, our own instruments. There is no cinematographer, no editor, no soundtrack to enhance. You will have days when you don’t balance as long, or you don’t turn as many times or you can’t jump as high. That’s where your response to music and space comes into play. I want to teach my dancers to use another vocabulary, just like a writer searches for a better word. We should have that kind of thesaurus in our technique, the ability to delve deeper into our dance voice. It’s much more visceral, much more vulnerable. And that makes many people uncomfortable.

The Sarasota Ballet and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet performed Diamonds in October at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The ballet’s Florida performances (accompanied by Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Two Pigeons) will take place Nov. 18 at the Van Wezel and Nov. 19 at Ruth Eckerd Performing Arts Hall in Clearwater.

TICKETS, PLEASE

Asolo Repertory Theatre, FSU/Asolo Conservatory: (941) 351-8000

Art Center Sarasota: (941) 365-2032

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota: (941) 306-1200; box office, (941) 360-7399

Banyan Theater Company: (941) 358-5330; box office, (941) 552-1032

Cine-World Film Festival (Sarasota Film Society): (941) 364-8662; (941) 955-FILM

Circus Sarasota: (941) 355-9335

Florida Studio Theatre: (941) 366-9000

Gloria Musicae: (941) 925-3183

Golden Apple Dinner Theatre: (941) 366-5454

Guitar Sarasota: (941) 362-2991; box office (941) 360-7399

The Hermitage Artist Retreat: (941) 475-2098

Historic Asolo Theater: (941) 360-7399

Island Players: (941) 778-5755

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art: (941) 359-5700

Key Chorale: (941) 921-4845

La Musica International Chamber Music Festival: box office, (941) 366-8450 ext. 3

Longboat Key Center for the Arts: (941) 383-2345

Manatee Players Riverfront Theatre: (941) 748-5875

New College New Music: (941) 487-4888

Perlman Music Program: (941) 955-4942

Players Theatre: (941) 365-2494

Ringling College Library Association Town Hall: (941) 925-1343

Sarasota Ballet: (941) 359-0099 ext. 101

Sarasota Concert Association: (941) 955-0040

Sarasota Concert Band: (941) 364-2263

Sarasota Film Festival: (941) 364-9514; box office, (941) 366-6200

Sarasota Jazz Festival: (941) 366-1552

Sarasota Opera: (941) 366-8450 or (941) 328-1300

Sarasota Orchestra: (941) 953-3434

Sarasota Pops: (941) 926-POPS

Sarasota Season of Sculpture: (941) 951-2541

Selby Gallery: (941) 359-7563

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Charge-It Line: (941) 953-3368

Venice Art Center: (941) 485-7136

Venice Symphony: (941) 488-1010

Venice Theatre: (941) 488-1115

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe: (941) 366-1505

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